As an advanced collector in the early 1970s, my mailbox was often filled with letters from other collectors asking not only about specific cards they had but how they should begin to collect. In response, I published a small booklet in 1973 called "Baseball Cards – Everything You Wanted to Know But Didn't Know Who to Ask." It was the first "How to Collect" book and price guide in the hobby and was favorably reviewed by sports collecting publications and the "outside" world as well. The book is out of print today , but many of the questions collectors had 25 years ago are still relevant today. The following deals with some of those key issues.

What should I collect? This depends on your interests and your pocketbook, but it's important to focus on a specific area. If you want to collect cards, consider the following possibilities: